How to break when you cannot get away

Inevitably comes the time when our only desire is to put aside everything to finally stop us. But you do not have to wait for such a dream vacation, every day we have the opportunity to dedicate ourselves to what makes us feel good and that can help us recover the energies to continue moving forward.

We are in a critical time of the year: it is hot – every year more and more, the energies are less and our fantasies are all oriented to the fateful moment when we can, finally, leave for deserved holidays. For those who can afford it, obviously.

After a year of work, either behind a desk or among the home walls, running around here, busy, busy, and worried, we feel the need for a break from the usual hell of rhythms. We can finally stop, whether it is on a sunny beach or on a mountain peeking no matter. The important thing, however, is to break away.

But do we really have to wait for the long-awaited vacation, to be able to put aside our hectic lives and enjoy a few moments of rest and well-being?

If you do not stop, I stop

The fundamental problem is that life does not stop. If we feel the need to refrain, there are still things to do: we must continue to work, produce, respect our commitments and deadlines. Although we feel that there are no more forces.

But if life does not stop, can we stop it? Waiting for holidays, can you still cut off holiday moments from everyday life? You can find spaces and moments of rest in which to immerse ourselves in recharging, just enough to be able to go back and take a breath?

Maybe yes. Perhaps it is possible to take time for themselves, to find those energies that can support us in periods – more or less long – in which we feel that we no longer have the strength. But what we can do concretely to recharge?

One time just for us

Each of us has things that he likes (and that theoretically makes us feel good) and others who like less or nothing, but unfortunately it does. The situation becomes much heavier to endure if, apart from tiredness and lack of energy, our life is unbalanced above all to things that need to be done, with little or no space for the activities that can produce on us effects benefits.

Because – fortunately – we are not all the same, we cannot list a list of activities to be done to make us feel good. Each of us knows what we likes and what we does not like, what makes us feel alive or productive, what gives us energy or greater serenity.

So the first step is quite simple: take paper and pen and write at least 5 activities that are for you a source of pleasure and joy or that give you a sense of effectiveness and productivity. It would be better if these activities embody both of these features, but it is not easy to find it so “complete.”

If you find it difficult to find them, you will find some tips that I hope can be useful to you.

Some ideas

Some activities have only one purpose: to make us relax and feel good. Often, these are activities that enable us to immerse ourselves completely at that moment, by putting on tiredness, thoughts, and inconveniences. They are pretty easy to find if we look for them among our interests, or among the things we like.

Read a book

Take a stroll in the nature

Take a trip off the door

Write a poem, a letter or a story

Eat a nice ice cream

Playing with your own children (or with a four-legged friend)

Going out with friends

Other activities, on the other hand, may seem less pleasing at first sight, but have the value of returning something in terms of “effectiveness”. These are all those initiatives that aim to keep us active, possibly achieving results, whether small or large. Among these are …

Arrange the garden

Repair the losing sink

Prepare a nice dinner

Learn how to play a musical instrument

Make crosswords

Create with your own hands a thought for someone whom we want

Doing volunteering

Then there are “bingo” activities with which to take the proverbial two pigeons with a hawk, complete activities that make us feel good and which also gives us a sense of effectiveness, such as doing physical activity and sports. Among these, however, my favorite is undoubtedly meditation, which represents the perfect synthesis of “taking time for oneself”.

I would but I cannot

At this point, if you have not yet prepared a list of possible activities to do now, it is time to do so. In fact, we came to the second step: choose when and how to do these activities.

It is important to find every day the time it takes to get at least one activity. It is easy to fall back into the routine and re-indulge in the rhythms that this time is increasingly difficult to sustain. For this, it is crucial to be able to carve out a space for ourselves to dedicate to the activities we have chosen.

On paper is easy, but as soon as we try to define more accurately the activities we want to play, here are doubts, uncertainties and alleged difficulties. In particular, the objections that most often come to mind to “sabotage” our good intentions are:

I do not have the time! Sure? Do not you really have five minutes to walk around the palace? Just start with little, even just a few minutes, and see what happens. If you know some positive effect, even if you can “tear out” for a few minutes, maybe you’ll be able to find a few extra minutes to dedicate to these activities. Maybe, taking some time off social networks or compelling zapping …

It would be selfish! Taking some time for oneself, sometimes, is seen as something deeply unfair to others. “I cannot dedicate time to me: I do not have time yet, I can not take it off to others” or “There are always so many things to do to push forward the cabin, what would others think of me if I, instead of giving me to do, let me do my own business?”, are some possible thoughts that can go through our heads. The truth is that there is absolutely no reason to consider selfish just because you do something for yourself. Indeed, if devoting ourselves to us makes us feel good and makes us more serene and better disposed towards others, is it not that it would be “selfish” not to seize these opportunities?

No need to do anything so insignificant, I just need a vacation! Sure, what better way to “break away” from everyday life in the shadow of a palm tree, letting us cradle the rhythm of the hammock and the music of the waves crashing on the beach? But if you cannot go to the sea? If you cannot afford a vacation? If you are still in February and holidays are more than a mirage? And then, the holidays end. Learning to take time for yourself remains, potentially for the rest of your life. It may look like a little, but having the chance to stop it before we dive again in the apnea of the usual trance can make a difference. Not only in the summer, but every time we feel the need.